1950 NERC Season

The 1950 NERC Season was the 5th season of the North-Eastern Runty Championship, the first professional runty league in the world. Like the 1949 season, this season featured 6 teams, who all faced each other home and away for a duration of 10 weeks, with 3 extra weeks where each team would play 2 more games and have a bye week.

The Bronx Bears won their first Champions Cup, defeating the 3rd-seed New York Knights 23-21 in the deciding game.

Regular Season
The NERC’s 5th season began on May 6, 1950, with all 6 teams playing at the traditional 3:00 time slot. It was a great opening week, as all 3 games were close. The Bears defeated the Riders 25-21 in Boston, the Panthers edged the Clippers 23-17, and the Islanders won a 26-25 nailbiter over the Knights.

Overall, if was the league's most even season in terms of win-loss record, and also the league's highest-scoring season, with an average of 6 more points per game than in 1949.

Games of the Week
Week 1: New York 25-26 Staten Island

Week 2: Boston 26-28 Buffalo

Week 3: Boston 29-23 Staten Island

Week 4: Boston 24-26 New York

Week 5: Staten Island 13-17 Hempstead

Week 6: Staten Island 19-25 New York

Week 7: Hempstead 27-25 Boston

Week 8: Buffalo 25-24 the Bronx

Week 9: Hempstead 23-24 the Bronx

Week 10: the Bronx 23-22 New York

Week 11: New York 27-34 Boston

Week 12: Boston 30-24 Hempstead

Week 13: the Bronx 25-34 Buffalo

1. THE BRONX BEARS

Leading Goalscorer: Charles Wentz (18)

For the second consecutive year, the team that lost in the Champions Cup the previous year finished first overall. This season, that team was the Bronx Bears. Despite the average team score per game being 3 points higher than in 1949, the Bears #1 defense did a great job at stopping their opponents’ best players. On offense, the emergence of Charles Wentz brought their offense from terrible to average, as he set an NERC record for goals in a season. The Bears finished with a record of 9-3-0, Their best during their time in the NERC.

2. BUFFALO PANTHERS

Leading Goalscorer: Christian Charpentier (14)

It was a step back for the Panthers in 1950, as their defense fell down from #1 to #5 in the league. This was most likely due to the positional change of Christian Charpentier, who moved to forward from fullback after his amazing Champions Cup performance in 1949. However, despite the defensive struggles, the addition of Charpentier up front made their already scary offense even scarier, as they averaged over 25.5 points per game. Allen Formock was also a big factor up front, finishing in the top 10 in goals. The Panthers finished at 7-4-1.

3. NEW YORK KNIGHTS

Leading Goalscorer: Victor Kattie (14)

Coming in third was a huge surprise, the New York Knights. Despite a 2-10 record in 1949 and not much to look forward to, their offensive core finally clicked and their defense was solid. Of all the breakout players, the most notable was Victor Kattie, an exciting prospect signed in 1948 who hadn’t lived up to expectations. Solomon Benward was another breakout player, playing solid on the backline. The Knights stumbled late in the season, but still hung on to the final playoff spot, finishing at 6-5-1.

4. BOSTON RIDERS

Leading Goalscorer: Gerald Winkler (12)

It was another disappointing year for the Riders, who were penned in by sportswriters to have a bounceback year. Instead, they lost 6 of their first 7 games, a hole too deep for them to get out of. The main reason for their underperformance was their defense, who allowed almost 3 more points per game than the closest team. Injuries weren’t an excuse either, their defensive play just declined sharply, and previously solid players like the Addison Brothers fell off a cliff in terms of skill. On the flip side, their offense was 2nd in the league in points scored, making their defensive woes even more infuriating. Boston finished at 4-6-2.

5. HEMPSTEAD CLIPPERS

Leading Goalscorer: Joe Pitts (10)

Finishing 5th were the Hempstead Clippers, who missed the playoffs for the first time in the NERC. Their 8-4 1949 season was considered an overachievement, but pundits were not expecting them to drop as far as they did. In 1950, Their offensive talent went down, their defensive struggles went up, and they went through the whole season without winning consecutive games. Overall, it was a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad season for the Clippers, as they finished 4-7-1.

6. STATEN ISLAND ISLANDERS

Leading Goalscorer: Cyril Dinker (12)

For the 5th consecutive season, coming in last place were the Staten Island Islanders. However, despite their constant futility overall, they finally had some realistic hope. For the first time in their NERC history, one of their players scored double-digit goals in back-to-back years. As well, they had two very impressive victories against the defending champion Buffalo Panthers. Many pundits were certain that 1950 would be the last year the Islanders would be at the bottom for the foreseeable future, with one saying “I see no scenario where this team does not make the playoffs in 1951”. Staten Island finished at 3-8-1.

Playoffs
For the first time in league history, the NERC announced it was using the same playoff format for consecutive seasons, the one introduced in 1949. Three teams would make the playoffs, with seeds 2 and 3 playing for the right to face the #1 seed in the Champions Cup.

Notable Events
-   The Week 10 game between The Bronx and New York featured a line brawl after players from both teams made unnecessarily hard and illegal tackles on each other. In total, 3 multiple-game suspensions were given out, including one 15-game suspension to the Bears’ William McArthur.

-   The American Runty Federation succeeded the Runty Federation as the governing body of the sport.

-   Sideline referees were introduced, to help the game’s head referee know when the ball has been kicked out, and what type of kick to award when that happens.

-   The Manhattan Runty Club announced three finalists for their official nickname, from a name-the-team contest. The three finalists were: The Tycoons, the Sounders, and the Archers. To gain more appeal throughout NYC, the team asked for the public’s opinion of their names based on a final vote.